STATEMENT: Terror will not prevail – Pax Christi International on the terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris

from Pax Christi International

November 14, 2015 — We were still shocked by the two suicide bombings which killed over 40 people and left injured more than 180 people in southern Beirut on Thursday when we got the news of a series of brutal assaults in Paris on Friday evening that have killed more than 120 people and left injured hundreds more. Those despicable attacks, presumably authored by members of the so-called Islamic State, have taken once more hundreds of victims and have brought pain and deep distress to numerous families and communities.

Pax Christi International and all its member organisations repudiate those terrorist actions and stand in deep solidarity with the victims and their families in Beirut, Paris and elsewhere. And we encourage them to have hope. We deeply believe that terror will not prevail and that the memories of those who have been killed will inspire sustainable solutions to indiscriminate violence.

In reflecting about those cruel events we believe that this is not about the people in Beirut and Paris only; this is about our human community, which keeps struggling to find ways to appropriately deal with terror and violence. We need to find them for this nonsensical bloodshed to stop.

It keeps being so easy to use armed violence in revenge, to justify it as the best way to solve ongoing bloody conflicts, and to offer it to citizens as the only source of security; however, military operations distract us from core components of this terror. Terrorist groups, such as the so-called Islamic State, keep increasing their wealth and their military power and for that to stop, a number of international connections have to be cut. So far, guns have not helped us to eradicate violent extremism; state institutions need to be far more creative and transparent in finding ways to do it, backed by imaginative responses already being developed by civil society organizations.

We mourn and pray for the victims of those merciless attacks, their families and communities, and we stand in solidarity with the people and organisations around the world trying to deal with root causes of violence and terror. We believe that, together, we can make this a better world for all.